‘If these walls could talk, they would scream:’ Frightful history of St. Augustine’s Old Jail

What is it about being terrified that brings people so much joy? Why do some relish thrills so chilling it could lead to heart palpitations? This is certainly the time of year curiosity gets the best of anyone looking for a scary good time. When you think of creepy stories — whether in real life or in the movies — strange, unexplained things almost always happen in places that have stood the test of time. They are old, musty and mysterious. Think of the creepy hotel in The Shining, the mansion in The House on Haunted Hill or the house in The Amityville Horror. All places that send a chill up the spine just thinking about them. This week on Florida’s Fourth Estate, hosts Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden get the haunting details on what is considered to be one of, if not the most haunted cities in America: St. Augustine. The man brave enough to pull back the curtain on the dark side this haunting season is Stephen Mitchell. Mitchell, with Historic Tours of America, knows about things that go bump in the night in St. Augustine because he has been bumped by a spirit or two while working at the Old Jail in St. Augustine. Mitchell has been featured on shows that conduct paranormal investigations and St. Augustine is a hot spot. Mitchell said while doing research on ghost tours in America he discovered the first ghost tours may have started in St. Augustine. “There is so much history and so much happens, people come looking for the ghosts and they have been for much longer than we’ve had ghost tours,” he said. “But the ghost stories keep building and building and so much keeps happening there it’s no wonder that hundreds of tours go out on any given night all over the city. It’s really incredible.” One of those takes place at the Old Jail on San Marcos Avenue, just north of downtown. It served the city from 1891 to 1953 and housed some of the most violent criminals within its walls. A tourist attraction now but at one point the Old Jail carried out capital punishments in public. It should come as no surprise when Mitchell